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Behavior

Have you heard the advice to listen more and speak less? How about that the better listener you are, the more you’ll understand your audience’s point of view? I’ve heard this advice many time over, and while I wholeheartedly believe it, I hadn’t experienced it firsthand. That is, until this week. Everything just started to click. Let me share my story with you.

Growing up, I was a quiet kid. Sure, I loved to laugh and have fun, but when it came to school or and environment where I needed to listen to one person, I excelled. In fact, I was so quiet, a few of my teachers questioned if I was really understanding the lessons they were teaching. I definitely was taking in the lessons – being quiet is often how I process the information I am receiving.

Always having felt like I have been a great listener, when I first heard the advice to listen more and speak less – I felt like there were speaking directly to me! However, I didn’t fully understand what that adivce truly meant until this past weekend.

Here are 3 recent interactions where listening creates opportunities.

Opportunity Strikes via Communities

It started a couple weeks ago. I had stumbled upon a daily inspirational podcast and listened to a couple episodes. It was refreshing to hear Ashley’s unrefined, raw take on podcasting. Ashley speaks her mind, is completely upfront, and is inspiring all the same. She has been podcasting daily for over 250 days!

When I found out she was based in Chicago, I reached out via Twitter and struck up a conversation. I love meeting fellow entrepreneurs doing big things, especially locally here in Chicago. If that is you, get in touch! A week or two later, I joined her Rebel Crew Facebook community and began adding to the conversation.

It was within this closed community, I came across an opportunity for writing. I jumped on it and within minutes I was connected to a whole new community of entrepreneurs doing big things around the world who have all come together to collaborate on an exciting new project. And now I am a part of that project!

Opportunity Strikes via Masterminds

In another group that I am a part of, I participated in a sort of brain trust or mastermind. It was a small group of us from all over the United States that came together and share our experiences participating in and holding webinars. Just from this 60-minute conversation, I was able to really connect with everyone and learn how I could add value.

Afterwards, I reached out to the person who organized the meeting to thank them for setting it up. I offered to chat further with them about brand strategy and brand experiences. This turned into an opportunity to partner with them on an upcoming webinar to teach their community.

By listening to the conversation, I was able to see where I could add value to the discussion and provide even more value to the their entire community.

Opportunity Stikes via Conversations

As I’ve written about a few times this year, I am a big believer in Shapr, the professional networking app. It was through a conversation over lunch that I was introduced to someone that helps brands manage their social media. I reached out to them and we set up a time to meet. After talking with them for just an hour or so, we realized many synergies and they then told me about a social business club here in Chicago.

Turns out joining the business club has been one of the best ways to connect with other amazing entrepreneurs doing big things around the city and world!

Final Thoughts on How Listening Creates Opportunities

Listening and being open to opportunities has been a tremendous way to grow my network, collaborate and meet new friends, and grow my business. Above all, it has allowed me to give more value to others. And that makes me feel great.

How has listening helped you to see opportunities? Leave a comment below or connect with me on Twitter and let me know!

Integrity, or the lack thereof is becoming more of a commonplace problem across organizations. Many people talk about integrity, know its importance, and even claim to have it. Yet, their actions tell a different tale. Have you ever spoken to someone, set up a meeting, both agreed upon the time, date, and place, only to be stood-up? They were a no show. No call, text, or email to apologize and reschedule. Just a plain no-show. They wasted your time. Their actions disrespected you and your time. They simply were not honest with you.

Integrity is defined as

“the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.”

What is it about business culture today that people are moving away from integrity? It is a lost characteristic that can add a tremendous amount of value to a new or long lasting relationship. A lot of my consulting engagements have been with the United States military services. All branches tout integrity as a value or virtue they strive to have as a quality for their soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines. Better yet, they live integrity. It is an honor to work side by side with Commanders, Captains, and Senior Master Chiefs who exhibit the qualities of integrity.

Lack of Discipline from Leadership Leads to the Wild West

People get into business for all sorts of reasons that often do not entirely relate to solving their target market’s biggest problems. As I have written about before, people often get into business to fund a lifestyle, doing just enough to get by. The military is all about structure, integrity, and discipline. Everyone knows where they stand, who they report to, what objectives they need to complete to move up, etc. While it can be a rigid structure, it provides a framework that is very much needed in the private sector.

Large corporations often have a structure in place and while it can be tedious, it provides a framework. It is a baseline that can be improved upon. Smaller companies, agencies, and partnerships often go to the other extreme of the spectrum, which I call “the wild west.” These small companies claim to be nimble and quick, employee-focused, and run as a family of sorts. However, once you begin to analyze the organization, it becomes apparent, quite quickly, that the firm lacks is structure. This lack of structure is often heard from the top down.

“We don’t operate like big corporations.”

“We’ll never sell out to a big company and answer to someone else.”

“We do things differently around here. Every client and every project is different and requires a different approach.”

The intention behind the above statements don’t address any of the problems. Thus, the wild west approach. In fact, the intention behind the above statements often is to separate themselves from the larger corporations. However, in repeating this statements as if mantras to the organization, many problems occur.

How Your Organization can Gain Structure

You can only improve upon what you measure. Small companies with the minds to be anything but corporate often don’t spend the time measuring performance metrics to understand how and where in the organization they can improve.

The BrandedWorld Score looks at an entire organization and provides key performance indicators for each of the seven Axioms, as well as an overall index score. This gives the organization the flexibility to see the big picture as far as performance and also dive deep to get to the root of problems and inefficiencies. Interested in learning your organization’s BrandedWorld Score? Contact us.